Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) ›› 2015, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (7): 837-846.DOI: 10.1007/s40195-015-0267-z

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Texture Evolution and Ultrafine Grain Formation in Cross-Cryo-Rolled Zircaloy-2

Sunkulp Goel1, R. Jayaganthan1(), I. V. Singh2, D. Srivastava3, G. K. Dey3, N. Saibaba4   

  1. (1)Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Centre of Nanotechnology, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India
    (2)Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India
    (3)Materials Science Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Mumbai, 40085, India
    (4)Nuclear Fuel Complex Limited, Hyderabad, 501301, India
  • Received:2014-11-02 Revised:2015-03-03 Online:2015-04-08 Published:2015-07-23

Abstract:

The texture and mechanical properties of cross-rolled zircaloy-2 at 77 and 300 K were investigated. Cross-rolling at 77 K was performed to impart different thickness reductions of 25% and 50%, while at 300 K with 25%, 50%, 75% and 85% reductions to the sample. EBSD analysis of deformed sample showed that near-basal orientation is not deformed completely after 50% rolling reduction. The activation of prismatic silp, contraction twin and extension twin were evident from the deformed microstructure at 77 K. The propensity for activation of basal slip <a> at 77 K was also observed. The deformation of the sample at 300 K occurs by prismatic, basal <a> and pyramidal <c + a> slips, which were predicted by pole figures. After annealing, the tensile strengths (735 and 710 MPa) are almost the same for 50% cryo-cross-rolled and room-temperature cross-rolled zircaloy-2 with almost 2.7% difference in their ductility. KAM analysis of the deformed samples was made to estimate the stored strain energy and dislocation density. Annealing of deformed sample at 673 K for 30 min results in recrystallization, which leads to the formation of ultrafine grains.

Key words: Cross-rolling, EBSD, TEM, Ultrafine, grains, Texture